Toolstation NCEL Premier Division
Marlon Adams believes he can restore the fortunes of Harrogate Railway in the long-term. Picture: Caught Light Photography
Marlon Adams is backing his “confident” players to pull Harrogate Railway out of trouble in the final six games of the season.
Adams and his troops are battling to prevent Railway’s second relegation in three seasons. Ahead of the Station View clash with Penistone Church tonight (Wednesday), Railway are out of the relegation zone – with one point more than third-bottom Hall Road Rangers who have four games-in-hand.
“Anything is achievable as long as you have players who are happy, confidence and willing to fight for the cause,” Adams told Non League Yorkshire.
“We have six games left and we have to keep plugging away and hopefully get a couple of victories.
“You look at where the club was when we picked it up, it was in a rot and losing a lot of games by some big score-lines.
“We have come in and settled it. We have a decent back four and we’re not conceding many goals. We were scoring a lot of goals at one point, but it has gone the other way.
“At some point it is going to come together. We only have six games for it to come together, but we have been performing well.
“You look back on the video from the Maltby game, you will see how good we were. If we had converted two of the chances we had we would be talking about something completely different here.
“It is now the biggest six games of our lives and I think we have shown in the last four games that we are playing with confidence.
“At Pontefract we lost 2-0, but they are second in the league and I don’t think it was a 2-0 game. We performed well at Barton and lost 1-0 and we could have got a point.
“On Saturday against Albion Sports that was a 0-0 game and we could have nicked a win.”
Railway drew 2-2 with Maltby Main on Monday night after conceding a late equaliser. Adams admitted his side should have held on.
“I thought it was a great performance and a great game for the neutrals as it was end-to-end,” he said.
“Unfortunately we did not take the opportunities we created and that allowed Maltby to get back into it.
“We were 1-0 down at half-time and I said to the lads that you’re knocking on the doors and if you keep knocking, at some point one is going open and two did.
“I thought we could have held out. We could have managed the game better to make sure we got a result, but obviously we were a bit naive from the free kick.
“We wanted the win, but every point counts. We could get to the end of the season and that one point may help stay up.”
Regardless of what happens at the season’s end, Adams plans to be around Station View for a while.
He wants to drag them out of doldrums and return them to the kind of great days in the sunshine they enjoyed under Billy Miller and before him Martin Haresign.
“I’m confident that I can get a team out to challenge in this league and get it out of trouble in the short-term,” he said.
“When I go to clubs I go for the long-haul. You can’t build a team over half a season or ten games. You build a team over a period of time.
“Now if the club want me to be here next season, I will be here no matter what happens whether we go down or stay up.
“I will then build a squad to make this club better. If the worst comes to the worst, it isn’t the end of the world as we will build a squad to get back up, but I want to stay in this league and push on.”
Adams was appointed as Liam Gray’s successor in November, ending his long-sought ambition of becoming an NCEL manager.
The former Lower Hopton boss was close to landing the Nostell Miners Welfare job in the summer, but missed out to Des Hazel.
“When I first got into management, I was happy to be in it,” he said.
“Eventually I got ambitious. I went for the Nostell job, didn’t get it and I came to Harrogate and they gave me a chance.
“Now I have come to Harrogate to prove I can work at this level. You look at our performances and where we have come from in the table I think I have proved that I can do it.
“With a team of my own, not one I have inherited, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position? Who knows?”